Weight Management, Essay Example

Subtopic 1: Discuss Physiological Consequences and Health Risks of Excess Body Weight

Description of Concrete Experience. When I was at my first year in college, the experience of living far from home affected my eating habits adversely; since I had no more opportunity to eat home-cooked food, and cooking was not among my hobbies, I began to eat junk food more often. In addition, hard classes and much homework made me eat late at night, and eat when learning, which reduced my conscious control over the amount of food I consumed. Therefore, in about half a year, I felt that I experienced hardships breathing when I had to get somewhere on foot; I felt much more intense constipation when walking, and abrupt weather changes resulted in blood pressure rises. I was very cautious about these symptoms of health deterioration and went to see a doctor who informed me that my rapid weight gain that I experienced within the past half of a year contributed to the development of the initial symptoms of the coronary heart disease (CHD) that led to high blood pressure. Moreover, the physician informed me about the dangerously high levels of cholesterol and blood sugar in my blood, which was also a threat for my health as it could lead to the development of diabetes and congestive heart failure in future.

Reflections. When I found out these news about my state of health, I was really shocked – I am a rather young an active person, and I would never even suppose that I could have health problems stemming from wrong nutrition habits. However, my deep involvement in studies and my striving to academic success made me forget about regular training that I used to attend, and my food choices became far from responsible and healthy. So, I saw that I focused on one aspect of my life, ignoring another one – health risks of junk food consumption. Only half a year was enough for me to develop problems with blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar; hence, I could hardly imagine what the next stage of my excessive body weight gain would bring about.

Generalizations/Principles/Theories. As the Human Kinetics (2009) source stated, being overweight has been found to relate directly to a great number of physical disorders including diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke, cancer, metabolic syndrome, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, fatty liver disease, and many other disorders typical for obese people. Over 85% of diabetic patients are obese, and abdominal fat is capable of causing blood vessels’ inflammation, causing a considerable range of problems with the cardiovascular system. The increased pressure of the body weight on the joints and bones causes problems with movement, further reducing the motor agility of obese people, and complicating the process of weight loss (Human Kinetics, 2009).

Testing and Application. Finding out about the disastrous consequences of uncontrolled weight gain and junk food consumption, I have decided to keep to a regular training schedule, and to become more responsible in food choices to restore healthy levels of cholesterol, sugar, and blood pressure. I was surprised to find out that it was not necessary to lose weight at extreme tempos to improve health; only a 5-10% weight loss could lead to significant health improvements (Human Kinetics, 2009). And indeed, I lost about 5-7% of my weight within one month of healthy dieting and regular exercise, and my medical tests showed the return to normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels. However, the restoration of the sugar level in blood may take a bit more time because it is a serious complication of junk food eating that I acquired.

Subtopic 2: Analyze Weight Current Nutritional Theories and Recommendations for Maintaining Healthy Weight.

Description of Concrete Experience. I have never focused much on the nutritional theories, and even mocked at my friends who involved in active calorie calculations, and adopted various nutritional guidelines such as vegetarianism, natural hygiene, four food group theory, etc. However, when I recognized my problem of body weight gain and decided to control my body weight at a normal level that I managed to regain, I took an active interest in nutritional theories and recommendations for healthy weight maintenance. I discovered that there are many schools of thought on nutrition and food choice, and I decided to try some of them on myself to decide which method suited my personal characteristics best.

Reflections. After facing the problem with blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar upon practicing unhealthy nutrition, I understood that nutritional theories (though some of them may be false science, and may have no real-life value for me and other people) are indeed based on various science-based facts about the ways in which food affects our lifestyle, activity, vitality, and quality of life, let alone the body weight. Hence, I realized that I had to find my own well-formulated and scientifically-based nutrition philosophy that I would follow in my life to prevent the emergence of the problem with unhealthy nutrition and unhealthy weight gain in future.

Generalizations/Principles/Theories. There are a number of nutritional theories, each of which is targeted at promoting certain nutritional principles and exclusion of certain foods. Some radical nutritional theories include vegetarian, fruitarian, and raw food theories – they favor eating only organic foods, refusing from meat, dairy products, and other products of non-organic origin, and raw food dieting rejects any thermal processing methods for consumed products (Coleman Health and Lifestyle Center, 2013). Some new fashionable theories are derived from the Asian experiences of healthy nutrition – these include the Macrobiotics, Oriental Dietary, and Natural Hygiene theories. The most popular nutritional theory in the USA is the Standard American Dietary theory taught in most American universities and practiced in hospitals to treat malnutrition or obesity issues (Coleman Health and Lifestyle Center, 2013). As for weight maintenance issues, Human Kinetics (2009) specialists spoke about the set-point theory of weight regulation (stating that humans have a genetically predetermined body weight and body fat content that the body autonomously regulates) and the fat cell theory (claiming that fat cells do not disappear but get smaller during body weight loss, and control of the body mass should involve sustained dieting practices).

Testing and Application. I used to live according to the Standard American Dietary theory, but after facing problems with my health, I reconsidered its propriety, and found much criticism of this theory because it took into account only the amount of calories consumed by people, and did not consider the quality of food. Hence, I practiced vegetarian dieting for some time, but understood that my organism requires the full range of foods for normal functioning. Hence, I ultimately resorted to consumption of food according to the Natural Hygiene theory; besides including healthy products, it also presents the specific philosophy of a lifestyle, not only eating alone. I can confess that I am not the full-scale Natural Hygiene follower because I still consume fish and meat, but I have reconsidered the ways of cooking such foods, and I manage to keep my weight under control by this healthy weight management practice.

Subtopic 3: Review Psychosocial Principles in Weight Management.

Description of Concrete Experience. When facing the problem of obesity, I have come across the psychosocial effects of the excess weight problem as well. I felt that after some short but unsuccessful attempts to reduce weight, my self-esteem reduced, and I felt new, unprecedented challenges in my relationships with friends and my mate. I felt that people were silently condemning me of my excess body weight, and my inability to cope with the problem exacerbated my personal discomfort. However, I also discovered that my eating habits also depended on my social surroundings – eating out together with my friends, seeing them favor the unhealthy eating habits, finding few healthy products in the nearby supermarket – all this affected my nutritional choices strongly.

Reflections. I realized that I was a socially involved person, as well as other people in the world, and the way in which people surrounding me organized their nutrition affected me strongly as well. Eating out with my friends in fast food cafes and coming home to parents who were anxious that I was starving at college, and were trying to feed me to death – all that made my attempts to lose weight a failure. I understood that I gained even more weight because I was eating only vegetarian, dietary products for several days, and I got so hungry that upon coming to a restaurant with my friends, I could eat two times more junk food than I would eat if I consumed food in a normal, usual way. These jumps in my food intake resulted in an even more adverse weight gain within the past half a year, and affected my self-esteem even more seriously – after consuming much junk food, I felt self-guilt and shame, and tried to eat even less than before, sometimes organizing hunger days by drinking only water, and eating nothing.

Generalizations/Principles/Theories. The Human Kinetics (2009) specialists underlined a close link between weight gain and self-esteem. Obese people suffer from guilt and shame regarding their weight and eating habits, which makes them involve in extremes by starving themselves to half-death mixed with the attacks of bulimia with eating everything they can see. Obesity was also found out to be connected with stigmatization – obese people are generally viewed unfavorably because unconscious connections between their weight and irresponsible eating behavior are made (Human Kinetics, 2009). Hence, obese people face problems with romantic relationships, socialization, at school, and at work, which contributes to further decrease of their self-esteem. However, nutritional habits are also a psychosocial matter, and following the nutritional habits of one’s family or peer circle may sometimes lead to obesity and failure to initiate a healthy lifestyle (Human Kinetics, 2009).

Testing and Application. Upon realizing the psycho-social nature of my bad nutritional habits and failure to achieve a sustainable body weight loss result, I reconsidered my attitude to my eating as my personal matter of choice. I have decided not to suffer the destructive psychosocial effect of my friends’ and parents’ nutritional lifestyle, but to introduce a new mode of nutrition into their lives as well. By showing them feasible positive results of proper nutrition, I managed to persuade my friends and parents to adopt a healthier lifestyle together with me, and we introduced some psychosocial controls for each other. I monitor the foods my parents and friends consume, and I can criticize their choice of food in case it is unhealthy; they do the same for me. This strategy is highly effective because we are often subjective and submissive to our nutritional whims, and forgive some excesses, while parents and friends are detached people who can produce an unbiased judgment, thus saving us from indulging ourselves with unhealthy junk food.

Subtopic 4: Explain the Physiologic Influence of, and Recommendations for Aerobic, Anaerobic, and Resistance Training in Weight Management.

Description of Concrete Experience. When I decided to actively involve in weight reduction and weight management, I realized that regular physical training was a solution to my overweight problem to a considerable extent. I have always considered regular exercise and sports as a means of keeping my mind and body disciplined, so I realized the awful effect on my self-discipline and my body shape that a temporary refusal from sports produced. Hence, I decided to involve in a range of sports activities depending on the season of the year – when it was warm, I was jogging and swimming, and when it was getting cold, I was attending a gym for aerobic classes and swam in the nearby swimming pool. However, I soon discovered that my weight was not lost, but instead I developed an even higher blood pressure and felt regular heartaches.

Reflections. After seeing such negative consequences of my training, I was very surprised to find out that not all exercises were useful for people who decided to lose weight; moreover, depending on the gravity of health complications resulting from obesity, some people may even hurt themselves with physical training, and achieve no benefit at all. I was involved in aerobic training most of my time, which caused serious loads on my heart and lungs. Taking into account the increased blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar, I understood that I should not have given so much load on aerobic exercises, as they caused more inconvenience and problems for me than usefulness and weight loss effect. Hence, I decided to find out which exercises are more suitable for people with cardiovascular problems and high levels of sugar, at least until the regular training and dieting mitigates the adverse obesity effects.

Generalizations/Principles/Theories. There is a distinct difference between aerobic, anaerobic, and resistance training in terms of weight loss and weight management practices. According to DeBruyne, Pinna, and Whitney (2011), aerobic training involves the body muscles into rhythmic movements for a sustained period of time, which helps improve the cardiorespiratory fitness of a person. The aerobic activities include brisk walking, swimming, running, and cycling, among others. Resistance training is used to develop muscle strength, power, and endurance, and is commonly used for gaining the healthy muscle body mass. Resistance training activities include free weights, weight machines, alongside with the use of the person’s own body weight in conducting push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, and other weight training exercises (DeBruyne et al., 2011). The anaerobic type of training is the one requiring strength but not involving the health and lungs into hard exercises (DeBruyne et al., 2011).

Testing and Application. After considering the evidence of various types of activities for weight management, I understood that aerobic exercises do not suit me now because they involve the heart and lungs into active loads, which causes discomfort and dissatisfaction with training outcomes. Resistance training does not suit me because I am interested in reducing my body mass, and not increasing it; hence, I chose the anaerobic exercises for restoring my health condition, and decided to proceed to aerobic training after the positive health effect of my dieting and exercising practices are visible.

Subtopic 5: Explain the Advantages and Disadvantages of the Various Methods for Determining Healthy Weight.

Description of Concrete Experience. After I involved in active weight reduction and management practices, I faced a problem with determining my healthy weight. I was surely eager to reduce my weight as much as possible, but after studying some professional literature and research on nutrition, I understood that healthy weight does not mean as little weight as possible. All people have some weight norms in which they feel comfortable. Therefore, my task was to determine my weight norm and strive to sustain it in the long run. I used the height-weight tables and body mass index, but I was completely aware of the fact that my personal characteristics may affect the final figure, and the weight that these measurements showed was not the one I felt comfortable in. Hence, I became highly obsessed with finding out a proper, reliable, and individually sensitive instrument of body weight measurement for the sake of keeping track of my body weight, and understanding how far or close I am related to my target weight.

Reflections. Thinking about body weight measurement and defining my proper weight made me think more about why people are so obsessed with figures and longing to comply with them. Judging from my own example, I understood that I need to visualize my goal, and to make some clear assessments in numerical terms of how well I succeed in weight management and weight reduction. I now know that weight reduction and dieting are indeed complicated endeavors, no matter what the public may think about it; people who have problems with hormones, or who are genetically predisposed to obesity have an extremely hard life by trying to keep their weight down to the norm. Some people (like me) may get frustrated by seeing no preliminary results from their dieting practices, which makes them leave the attempts of getting slimmer, and involve in heavy, unhealthy eating again. Hence, knowing one’s ideal or at least healthy weight is a good stimulus for continuous improvement – even losing a couple of hundreds of grams per week makes the person closer to his/her goal, which looks very encouraging and reassuring.

Generalizations/Principles/Theories. According to the data presented by Human Kinetics (2009), the most popular ways of determining normal weight and evaluating fatness include the height-weight tables, body mass index calculations, and body-fat ranges. Some additional methods presupposing the direct measurement of body fat includes skinfold measurements, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), and hydrodensitometry (Human Kinetics, 2009). Body-fat distribution is also often measured with measuring distance around the waist – the larger the waist circumference is, the more risk for obesity is. Waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is also considered effective in fat measurement (Human Kinetics, 2009). However, one should also not forget about the subjective measurement of normal body weight – the body image and self-acceptance, which is the personal perception of a person regarding his/her ideal weight. Though this method often seems unreliable because of people’s unreasonable expectations about weight, it is still a more comfortable way of aligning the person’s weight with his or her requirements.

Testing and Application. Taking into account that different body weight measurement methods defined my ideal weight differently, I decided to apply several measures, and then to correlate the results with my body image and weight loss expectations. I measured my waist and understood that my predisposition is low to moderate, so I was cheered up by that finding and understood that my problem is not of hormonal or genetic origin – only malnutrition. After that, I conducted the calculations with the help of the body mass index method, and attended the BIA session to identify the objective, precise amount of body fat I possessed. After receiving the results of these three measurements, I undertook a rational, objective, and realistic assessment of my body image, and concluded that the best ideal to pursue was my body weight I had before college, since I felt very comfortable with it, and never had problems with health.

Subtopic 6: Discuss the Hazards of Various Fad Weight Loss Diets.

Description of Concrete Experience. After I found out about my health problems and the high blood pressure and cholesterol levels caused by the unhealthy nutrition habits to which I adhered for about half a year, I was at first desperate to find some quick and effective method of reducing my body weight because I panicked about its destruction of my health. In the effort to lose weight quickly, I at first tried the Atkins diet recommended by a friend of mine – it guaranteed a sharp and quick body weight loss, so I involved in practicing it actively. However, it contained very many complex requirements for the food intake, and I was studying heavily and could not constantly keep up with the assigned schedule. Hence, I lost a couple of kilograms in the first two weeks, which encouraged me greatly, but regained them right after I refused from that diet. Another try was the Ornish diet – it targets the problems of high cholesterol and blood pressure, which was exactly what I needed. Hence, I practiced this diet for two months until I understood that my health did not improve, and some serious deficiencies in my nutrition became evident.

Reflections. After analyzing my unsuccessful experience with these two diets, I understood that they represent the so-called “fad diets”, the diets that offer tremendous and quick results, and are in fact fakes based on no scientific evidence of nutrition science. Following the guidelines of fad diets is often quite complicated, as I saw in the case of Atkins diet, and at times, by focusing on some single problem, the diet ignores the whole scope of the person’s nutritional needs (as my experience with Ornish diet showed). When practicing the Atkins diet, I felt an acute deficiency of carbohydrates which is also harmful for health, while by pursuing the Ornish diet, I refused from all fats, both healthy and unhealthy ones, thus reducing my blood pressure and cholesterol, but at the same time uncovering problems in other aspects of my health. Therefore, after this series of unsuccessful and even dangerous dieting experiences, I decided to take a science-based approach that did not promise the visible, quick, magic results, but was nevertheless a complex, comprehensive, and holistic approach to weight loss and weight management that promised sustainable results.

Generalizations/Principles/Theories. According to the information presented by DeBruyne et al. (2011), fad diets are popular among the public because they promise quick and magic results of weight loss, which always sounds attractive to people desperate about losing excessive kilograms. However, these diets usually have a short effect, and the lost kilograms usually return to their owners. There is a realm of names of such diets, including the Atkins diet, the Cheater’s diet, South Beach Diet, Zone Diet, and many others. They work for a while, but appear very complicated for people, since they require much work on calculating calories and carbohydrates, glycemic indices of the food, and combining various types of foods in a delicate, well-thought manner to produce the desired effect. Hence, even despite the mounting claims of nutrition specialists about the unreasonable and unscholarly claims of fad diets, they emerge with regularity, and enjoy public attention for a while.

Testing and Application. Upon understanding the short-term and often false effect of fad diets, I understood that I should use some more traditional, though less “magic” ways of losing weight and maintaining it in the course of time. Hence, I have decided to follow the magic rule of the nutrition science – to limit energy intake to the level less than the energy expenditure. I involve in regular training and maintain weight through reasonable dieting.

References

Coleman Health and Lifestyle Center (2013). Nutritional Theories. Retrieved from http://colemanhealthandlifestylecenter.com/index_files/page0003.html

DeBruyne, L. K., Pinna, K., & Whitney, E. N. (2011). Nutrition and Diet Therapy. (8^th ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.

Human Kinetics (2009). Health and Wellness for Life. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics 10%.